Most of the time being a school librarian is a great day job for being a writer. Lots of access to both kids and books. However, one negative is that working in a school makes it almost impossible for me to visit any other schools as an author. It seems that my staff and students [...]
My grandpa used to ask me that question all the time.
The blog’s been quiet lately because I’ve been spending my time here instead:
McKenna Elementary, MALCOLM AT MIDNIGHT
But the truth is, I’m not sure if I’m working hard or hardly working. I’m busy with it, yes, but if you go by page count, it sure [...]
What’s your school day like? How about if you like in Brazil? Or Denmark? Or Kenya? See what’s the same and what’s different about kids’ days around the world through Barbara Kerley’s simple, graceful text and the gorgeous photos from National Geographic in the picture book One World, One Day.
I read this book right after [...]
According to my bookshelf on Goodreads, I read 143 books in 2009. It’s actually more than that because I didn’t start adding to Goodreads until partway through the year. The rest of my list is here. But anyway… I gave 18 of them 5 stars. They are:
So you’d think these would be my favorites of [...]
I know, school’s already out for most of you, so this post is a little too late. But most of these books are not actually Christmas stories. Instead, they have broader themes of what it means to give and receive. So they can make wonderful read alouds any time of year, right?
(All titles guaranteed to [...]
Do you know what an osprey is? They’re birds of prey, like eagles, only a little smaller. (Ospreys hunt in our Follow That Food Chain: A Temperate Forest book.) When the pesticide DDT almost wiped out the bald eagles, it also devasted the osprey population. They’ve been endangered in Wisconsin–but no more! Their numbers have grown [...]
A few tidbits that made me smile so far this week.
I’m officially on vacation for the next 12 days!
The first grade teachers won a grant at our school to get Playaways for their classroom listening stations. Have you seen a Playaway? They’re like iPods for books. Very cool–and very popular with our students. I smile because [...]
There were 4 things about Pamela Turner’s The Frog Scientist that made me want to interview her about her book. 1) I loved how the whole story is an example of the scientific process in action. 2) It’s is a great example of how nonfiction books can be used with different reading abilities–Mr. E (10) [...]
When we were in China, we were often asked what dish our part of the country known for. This was a stumper. Um, venison? Lutefisk? Then we realized it wasn’t so much a dish as a food group we should be sharing. And we started talking about cheese. I don’t know why we didn’t think [...]
I think I mentioned that I’ve started reviewing picture books for Booklist. One of the things I need to include in each review are 2-3 similar titles–so Booklist can link to their other reviews. I love this idea–I’m always Googling for read aloud titles on odd subjects. So, with my Booklist editor’s okay, I’ll start [...]
Chris Gall talks about his new picture book, Dinotrux–just named a Publisher’s Weekly Best Children’s Book for 2009!
Describe your book:
Dinotrux is about an ancient race of primitive trucks that apparently existed millions of years ago. It turns out that they had not yet evolved into the kind, helpful trucks we have today.
How did you get [...]
